2006/6/28, Mr Beev <lumbaa / gmail.com>:
> irb> puts(line) while line = gets
> this is test line
> [EOF]
> NameError: undefined local variable or method `line' for main:Object
> from (irb):1
>
> The Pickaxe says on page 354 that unless the expression (on the left of
> the while) is not a block, then the loop gets executed ZERO or more
> times. So it has to evaluate the condition BEFORE the expression, which
> ought to assign a value to "line" (thus defining it).
>
> This will work, but shouldn't be necessary:
>
> line = nil
> puts(line) while line = gets
>
>
> Any insight would be much appreciated!!!
Note, usually you cannot rely on IRB when it comes to scoping and
local variables. It behaves differently than normal Ruby code. But in
this case it's right:
robert@fussel ~
$ ruby -e 'puts line if line = gets'
d
-e:1: undefined local variable or method `line' for main:Object (NameError)
robert@fussel ~
$ ruby -e 'def t; puts line if line = gets; end; t'
d
-e:1:in `t': undefined local variable or method `line' for main:Object
(NameError)
from -e:1
The reason, as has been pointed out already is that the assignment
appears after the read access. A solution is to use "and":
robert@fussel ~
$ ruby -e 'line = gets and puts line'
s
s
robert@fussel ~
$
Kind regards
robert
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